fdisk screws MFT table

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

hi folks,

I'm desperate.

recently I bought a new HD (WD 120 GIG), put it in my computer and
copied all my important data to it for backup reasons. Now I wanted to
install windows on my old 30 Gig drive. I can't boot from CD for some
reason, so for a really clean install I first need to install W98 before
I can install XP. So I started the W98 setup program and fdisk asked me
if I wanted to repartition my disk. I assumed he was talking about the
30 Gig disk, which has always gone fine, so I said yes. But it crashed,
and I detached the new disk from my computer. Too late, as turned out
later. Installation went fluently, but the minute I opened "this
computer" I realised fdisk had screwed up the FAT table of my new drive
(which is formatted in NTFS) making the data unreachable, as "disk
management" tells me.

I did quite a lot of research, but no solution yet. Any help or tips are
greatly appreciated since it's quite a bunch of work we're talking about
here

Anyone know of a free solution? I found getdataback from runtime, but
it's shareware. A way to crack this one would also be appreciated

thanks in advance

 

[bar]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

If you couldn't manage to boot off you CD one may take the opinion that oyu
have an OEM version of XP or a copy CD.

Regardless, all Retail Version are bootable, even Upgrades. SO perhaps you
didn't set BIOS up correctly. make sure you understand how to do this in
future.

Go to WD's website and get Data Lifeguard.

Data Lifeguard Tools, a set of software utilities that work in conjunction
with the embedded Data Lifeguard features, make hard drive installation,
management, diagnostics and repair simple and worry-free. These two
components work together to offer superior data protection.

This should 'resore' your HDD to a working state with full capacity.

http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp

Once the HDD is restored, boot off the Windows CD and reinstall XP correctly.

If you still can't boot off the CD, get your Win98 startup floppy and add to
it SMARTDRV.EXE from the Wndows 98 CD.

Boot off the floppy, type in SMARTDRV.EXE
Insert the XP CD,
Change to the x:\I386 directory [x = CD drive letter]
type in winnt.exe

Windows XP installation should start.

Be sure to have your Product Key available.


"Ep" wrote:

> hi folks,
>
> I'm desperate.
>
> recently I bought a new HD (WD 120 GIG), put it in my computer and
> copied all my important data to it for backup reasons. Now I wanted to
> install windows on my old 30 Gig drive. I can't boot from CD for some
> reason, so for a really clean install I first need to install W98 before
> I can install XP. So I started the W98 setup program and fdisk asked me
> if I wanted to repartition my disk. I assumed he was talking about the
> 30 Gig disk, which has always gone fine, so I said yes. But it crashed,
> and I detached the new disk from my computer. Too late, as turned out
> later. Installation went fluently, but the minute I opened "this
> computer" I realised fdisk had screwed up the FAT table of my new drive
> (which is formatted in NTFS) making the data unreachable, as "disk
> management" tells me.
>
> I did quite a lot of research, but no solution yet. Any help or tips are
> greatly appreciated since it's quite a bunch of work we're talking about
> here
>
> Anyone know of a free solution? I found getdataback from runtime, but
> it's shareware. A way to crack this one would also be appreciated
>
> thanks in advance
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

"Ep" <e.j@nospam.nl> wrote in message
news:ah5Vc.15$uj4.1@fe39.usenetserver.com...
> hi folks,
>
> I'm desperate.
>
> recently I bought a new HD (WD 120 GIG), put it in my computer and
> copied all my important data to it for backup reasons. Now I wanted to
> install windows on my old 30 Gig drive. I can't boot from CD for some
> reason, so for a really clean install I first need to install W98 before
> I can install XP. So I started the W98 setup program and fdisk asked me
> if I wanted to repartition my disk. I assumed he was talking about the
> 30 Gig disk, which has always gone fine, so I said yes. But it crashed,
> and I detached the new disk from my computer. Too late, as turned out
> later. Installation went fluently, but the minute I opened "this
> computer" I realised fdisk had screwed up the FAT table of my new drive
> (which is formatted in NTFS) making the data unreachable, as "disk
> management" tells me.
>
> I did quite a lot of research, but no solution yet. Any help or tips are
> greatly appreciated since it's quite a bunch of work we're talking about
> here
>
> Anyone know of a free solution? I found getdataback from runtime, but
> it's shareware. A way to crack this one would also be appreciated
>
> thanks in advance
>

Here are a few tools that might help you retrieve your partition:

http://www.restorer2000.com/r2k.htm
http://www.hddrecovery.com.au
http://bootmaster.filerecovery.biz
http://www.runtime.org/
www.acronis.com

About the cause of your disaster: There are a few lessons to
be learnt:
- Backing up your data was an excellent idea.
- Backup up your important files once every week, to an independent
storage medium, would be even better.
- Never leave your backup medium connected unless actually backing
up files.
- Always have a Win98 boot disk handy (www.bootdisk.com). It is
extremely useful when unable to boot with a CD, or when trying to
access files while WinXP is unavailable.